The members of BCL’s community engagement team in Bougainville bring a wealth of local experience and work with people daily to build trust and deeper relationships.

BOUGAINVILLE

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In August 2017, BCL held its first board meeting in Bougainville, at Buka, in more than 27 years to mark its full time return.

BOARD MEETING

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LANDMARK

Today’s BCL

Bougainville Copper Limited is an independently-managed company of Papua New Guinea that is publicly listed on the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange).

Bougainville Copper’s main objective is to work cooperatively towards realising the vision of resuming active exploration and sustainable copper, gold and silver mining at Panguna, in central Bougainville, after mining ceased in 1989.

The people of PNG and Bougainville have a significant stake in Bougainville Copper, with the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) holding a 36.4 per cent share in the company, as does the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. This followed the departure of Rio Tinto in mid-2016.

Bougainville Copper has a strong local board and management team that knows Bougainville extremely well. The board is led by chairman Sir Melchior Togolo, a prominent Bougainvillean, with extensive experience in the minerals sector.

GEOGRAPHY

The Autonomous Bougainville Region consists of 168 islands with the most populated being the large island of Bougainville and the smaller island of Buka to its north, separated by the narrow Buka Passage.

PEOPLE

REGIONAL HISTORY

Bougainville has a long human history with the first inhabitants arriving around 29,000 years ago. In 1643, the inhabitants of Takuu and Nissan atolls had the first recorded contact with Europeans from an expedition led by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.